I don't often write about politics on this blog (at least politics not associated with science policy & education), but I'll make an exception in this case. TV personality Rachel Ray recently did a commercial for Dunkin' Donuts in which she wears a black & white fringed paisley scarf. It reminds me of a scarf that was tied around the neck of a stuffed peccary my mother once bought at a Texas airport, but I fail to see how conservative pundit Michelle Malkin could mistake it for a keffiyeh, the traditional headdress of Arab men. According to Malkin this automatically means Ray was supporting terrorism, and she rattles off a list of other celebrities that have supposedly shown their solidarity with "jihadists." I haven't searched for every case, Malkin's assertion that presidential candidate John McCain's daughter Meghan once wore a keffiyeh comes off as equally daft. I don't know any terrorists that wear purple, plaid neck-scarves, do you?
Unfortunately Dunkin' Donuts caved to all this conservative pressure and pulled the ad. This pleased Malkin and other conservatives who have nothing better to do than turn an inoffensive paisley scarf into a symbol of jihad, but I find it absolutely disgusting. Are conservative fashion police going to threaten boycotts anytime they see a piece of clothing that addles their brains? Are TV spokespeople going to have to wrap themselves in American flags and hold a crucifix every time they go on the air so not to offend the sensibilities of a few loud-mouthed lack wits? I surely hope not, but it doesn't look like hateful right-wing talking heads are going to go away anytime soon.
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1) There is the very real possibility that the answer to the titular question is "Yes" to both...
2) "Are TV spokespeople going to have to wrap themselves in American flags and hold a crucifix every time they go on the air so not to offend the sensibilities of a few loud-mouthed lack wits?" That does seem to be pretty much what they are going for, yes...
Dunkin' Donuts truly wussed out on this one.
I'd never heard of Rachel Ray before this incident reached Pharyngula. Shows where my horizons are, eh? Anyway, I think the whole business just goes to show how the pundit industry has nothing to do with the dissemination of ideas and the conduct of rational discourse, and everything to do with fear-mongering and the demonization of the Other. But what would I know?
Malkin is an idiot.
Blind or dumb?
"[] utterly, totally, completely crazy. Batshit crazy. Head-trauma crazy."
Ouch.
Many German Indie-Pop clubs, and other such leftist and alternative institutions in Germany, have banned keffiyehs. This makes some sence in a highly politicized environment: After all, the grand mufti, who forced the thing upon the male Arab population of Palestine in the thirties (those who insisted to wear their traditional fezzes instead were brutalized and sometimes murdered), later became a SS general. For historical reasons that are obvious, Germans, or at least those Germans that consider themselves anti-fascist, should not wear the rag.
This said, Malkin still misses the mark. What might apply in a politicised environment might not apply in the cultural industry. If B-celebrities like Rachel Ray or Jessica Simpson wear the keffiyeh, that doesn't mean that they endorse the ideology of the mufti (or of modern islamists). It means that they are airheads that do not know - or care to know - about the cultural and political history of an artefact. This invariable means the item in question becomes a mere fashion object, another consumer good produced by the cultural industry, and loses its political meaning. This is sometimes bad - it's hard to see Lindsay Lohan wearing the logo of, lets say, the band you adored when you were fifteen. But it also can be good, when it turns a symbol of hatred and violence into a fashion accessoire that is both point- and harmless. The same happened to Che Guevara t-shirts - they don't mean anymore that the wearer is a stalinist, they mean the wearer is a fashion victim. If you drive a car called "cavalier", this does not mean that you are a member of the IRA (or whoever is the spiritual successor of the historic cavalier or jacobite movement) and want to kill presbyterians. It just means you can't afford a decent car.
Last but not least: It isn't clear, at least not from the picture shown in this blog, that the scarf worn by Ray is a keffiyeh at all.
This obviously confirms that Dunkin' Donuts is run by al Qaeda. This is a clever way to kill Americans, by providing them with high-fat, high-sugar, lost-cost snack food. We all should have seen this coming. And obviously all Arab men support terrorism, too. I never would have made the connection between her scarf and Arab dress unless someone pointed out to me. My first thought was "that doesn't go very well with her shirt".
How do people like Malkin not simply implode?
The Malkin post you link to was written AFTER the scarf was already identified as paisley. Yet Malkin STILL thinks it's evil because it "resembles" a kaffiyeh.
This reminds me of the Muslim protests over the word "Allah" in Arabic appearing in the treads of shoes and tires.
It was outrageous when I learned that Malkin objected to the keffiyeh. But now I find out it's a paisley design!! That is beyond ridiculous. And she's still sounding off about the scarf even though she knows it is not a keffiyeh.
Seems to me I remember her right-wing cronies arguing, in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, that one of the reasons we had to invade was to free those poor Muslim women there from the tyranny that told them what they could and couldn't wear. Oh, wait - before the invasion, Iraqi women had a lot more freedom to dress as they liked than most of the other middle eastern countries. Oh, well. So much for consistency. Or bothering to learn the facts.
Oh. My. God. THAT'S what the stink is all about?
Please Ms. Malkin, get clinical help.